Friday, January 05, 2007

I was just thinking about how I felt a year ago this morning. And I thought to myself, what a difference a year makes. Here, yesterday was January 4th and on January 4th, 2006 I was at the Rose Bowl for the BCS Championship game for USC Trojans vs. Texas Longhorns.

In retrospect, the game was a much better game than I gave it credit for that evening on the way home. I was so surprised by the fact that USC lost, and from my perspective giving the game away -- that I could not see how great of a game it was. I could not get past that USC should have been ahead 21-0 at one point in the first half if it was not for Reggie Bush's ill-advised lateral or Matt Leinart's unexplainable interception in the end zone. Those two scores would have been game over. But, that really is not the point. Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns persevered and won the game in last seconds. Regardless of how I felt about it, that was quite an accomplishment.

This year's bowl games were fun, but not quite as exciting. In fact, just 3 days before the 2007 Rose Bowl with the USC Trojans vs. Michigan Wolverines, I was offered tickets for face value at the 20-yard line -- right around row 40. Normally, I would have jumped at the opportunity, but the way the USC did not show up against UCLA -- I thought it might be the same story again. However, the real reason was that when I got the call I was battling with a bad case of the flu, and had no idea if I would be better in time. Boy, did I miss out on a great showing the USC against Michigan. It was pretty obviously that Michigan was overrated -- the only decent team they beat was Notre Dame, when Notre Dame was overrated. Look what LSU did to them. Then, against Ohio State, the game was no where near as close as it looked. The Buckeyes basically kept Michigan in the game with fumbles on snaps and other turnovers that never happen. Believe me, it was not "good defense" causing the turnovers. I guess they did beat Wisconsin though.

However, the biggest and best surprise of the bowl season was that wild & crazy Boise State team taking out Oklahoma. Again, Oklahoma was another one of these overrated teams -- but they really should have taken care of Boise State. However, three straight do or die plays to end the game and win it, was simply amazing. I am still replaying that hook & ladder play over on my computer. At first I thought the receiver was wacko for taking a step away from the 1st down marker.

Let's hope that the Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Florida Gators is as good as we have already seen. People really do not know how good Ohio State is -- they beat a Texas team that should not be in the top 20, and an overrated Michigan team. For some reason, they did not face Wisconsin this year -- a team in their own conference.